Author Archives: Stephen Carr Hampton

About Stephen Carr Hampton

Stephen Carr Hampton is an enrolled citizen of Cherokee Nation, an avid birder since age 7, and a former resource economist for the California Department of Fish & Game, where he worked as a tribal liaison and conducted natural resource damage assessments and oversaw environmental restoration projects after oil spills. He writes most often about Native history and contemporary issues, birds, and climate change.

Intergenerational supremacy: The straight line from pioneers to poor white support for Trump

Posted on November 8, 2020 by Stephen Carr Hampton

While I’m tremendously relieved that Biden won the election, I remain terrified. Why did 71 million people vote for Donald Trump in 2020, even more than in 2016? By now, we all knew that the draft-dodging, pussy-grabbing, bankrupt, tax cheating, … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts, news | Tagged 2020, Bacon's Rebellion, Chivington, Custer, de Tocqueville, election, ethnic cleansing, genocide, grant, intergenerational trauma, manifest destiny, massacres, Metzl, mound builders, moundbuilders, pioneers, racism, Sand Creek, sheridan, socialism, Trail of Tears, trump, wedge, white supremacy | Leave a comment

Columbus’s second voyage was the real killer

Posted on October 7, 2020 by Stephen Carr Hampton

September, 1493, barely six months after Columbus returned to Castile (Spain) from his first voyage, the harbor at Cádiz was abuzz with activity. An armada was assembling. Colombo’s second voyage was no reconnaissance expedition, no “exploration”. It was an invasion. … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged Columbus, Columbus Day, ethnic cleansing, genocide, haiti, Hispaniola, second voyage, Spain | 3 Comments

Barr schmoozes the Cherokee: bringing Covid and taking sovereignty?

Posted on October 5, 2020 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Attorney General William Barr spent most of Wednesday, September 30, at Cherokee Nation (CN). This was Day 4 after he attended the infamous Amy Coney Barrett reception at the White House, the presumed COVID super-spreader event now known as the … Continue reading →

Posted in COVID-19, news | Tagged Barr, Cherokee, Cherokee Nation, Covid, environment, Hoskin, mask, oil, Oklahoma, pandemic, regulations, transmission, trump, visit | 2 Comments

Stand by, militias have been enforcing white supremacy in the US for centuries

Posted on September 30, 2020 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Militias, rag tag groups of armed white men, farmers, and pioneers, often supported by local law enforcement, have a long history of enforcing the idea that the United States is first and foremost for white people (i.e. white supremacy). These … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged #ProudBoys, apache, Aravaipa, Chivington, Darfur, debate, Fighting Parson, Interahamwe, Janjaweed, Lancaster, militias, Native American history, Paxton, Pinal, Proud Boys, public safety, Rwanda, Sand Creek, Soule, Sudan, Susquehannock, trump, tucson, White supremacist, white supremacy | Leave a comment

Hysterectomies and forced sterilization, again, Native Americans remember

Posted on September 18, 2020 by Stephen Carr Hampton

With forced hysterectomies of immigrant refugees in the news, Native Americans remember. Between 1970 and 1976, as the forced boarding schools were declining, physicians of the Indian Health Service sterilized at least a quarter of Native American women between the … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged forced, Hysterectomies, ice, immigrants, Indian health service, kaw, native americans, sterilization | Leave a comment

White supremacy and Dungeness crab: The long history of blaming Indians for poor resource management

Posted on August 28, 2020 by Stephen Carr Hampton

“The Indians have wiped out Dungeness crab in south Puget Sound.” This is a common line among white people in the Pacific Northwest. The story, besides racist, is factually wrong and biologically impossible. Here’s the real story: This explanation was … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts | Tagged climate change, crab, Dungeness, fisheries management, fishing rights, indian, John Cotton, Native, puget sound, the blog, wdfw | 2 Comments

Drama on the Rez: Big Oil, Oklahoma, and Trump put the Five Tribes under pressure

Posted on July 24, 2020 by Stephen Carr Hampton

With the ink barely dry on the Supreme Court ruling that eastern Oklahoma is in fact reservation land of the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole, the Five Tribes are under pressure to relinquish some of their new-found sovereignty. The … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged big oil, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Five Tribes, McGirt, Melonia, oil, oil industry, Oklahoma, Osage murders, permit, pipeline, pressure, regulation, royalties, SCOTUS, Seminole, sovereignty, Stitt, tax, trump | Leave a comment

How Covid, Obama, and the Standing Rock Sioux shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline

Posted on July 9, 2020 by Stephen Carr Hampton

Obama’s Play On December 4, 2016, during that short window between Hillary Clinton’s loss and Trump’s inauguration, the US Army Corp of Engineers, at the direction of lame duck President Barack Obama, announced that construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline … Continue reading →

Posted in Standing Rock | Tagged #DAPL, #standingrock, army corp, boasberg, Covid, Dakota Access, eis, eis process, judge, Obama, ruling, Sioux, Standing Rock | Leave a comment

Paha Sapa, Custer’s Last Stand, Mt. Rushmore, and Wounded Knee: A history of the Black Hills in one diagram

Posted on July 2, 2020 by Stephen Carr Hampton

A lot of stories are linked to the Black Hills; a lot of dots connect there. Here’s a very abbreviated history. CLICK TO ENLARGE See this blog post for more background on the Great Sioux Nation, both past and present. … Continue reading →

Posted in my own thoughts, news | Tagged Black Hills, Crazy Horse, Custer, custer's last stand, grant, greasy grass, great sioux nation, Great Sioux Reservation, Hearst, kkk, lakota, Mt. Rushmore, Paha Sapa, peltier, Sioux, Sitting Bull, six grandfathers, the black hills are not for sale, treaty of 1868, Wounded Knee | Comments Off

John Sutter’s heart of darkness

Posted on June 18, 2020 by Stephen Carr Hampton

In Joseph Conroy’s novel Heart of Darkness, the ivory trader Mr. Kurtz moves deep into the “savage interior” of the Congo and builds a vast slave plantation where he rules by terror. Severed heads are perched on the posts of … Continue reading →

Posted in news | Tagged Apocalypse Now, Donner Party, genocide, Gold Rush, heart of darkness, Maidu, Miwok, slavery, slaves, statue, Sutter, Sutter's Mill | 1 Comment